Paper 4, Section I, B

Quantum Mechanics
Part IB, 2018

A particle moving in one space dimension with wavefunction Ψ(x,t)\Psi(x, t) obeys the timedependent Schrödinger equation. Write down the probability density ρ\rho and current density jj in terms of the wavefunction and show that they obey the equation

jx+ρt=0\frac{\partial j}{\partial x}+\frac{\partial \rho}{\partial t}=0

Evaluate j(x,t)j(x, t) in the case that

Ψ(x,t)=(Aeikx+Beikx)eiEt/\Psi(x, t)=\left(A e^{i k x}+B e^{-i k x}\right) e^{-i E t / \hbar}

where E=2k2/2mE=\hbar^{2} k^{2} / 2 m, and AA and BB are constants, which may be complex.